USDA’s First Ever Farm to School Grant Connects Schools to Local Agriculture

By : Sara Novak

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced a $4.5 million grant for the USDA’s first ever Farm to School Grant, designed to cultivate a larger connection between school cafeterias and local farms. The program includes 68 projects in 37 states under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The projects will serve 3,700 schools and 1.75 million students, half from rural areas.

"When schools buy food from nearby producers, their purchasing power helps create local jobs and economic benefits, particularly in rural agricultural communities," Merrigan said in a statement reported on Obama Foodorama. "Evidence also suggests that when kids understand more about where food comes from and how it is produced, they are more likely to make healthy eating choices."

The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act

The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act provided the first non-inflationary increase to school lunch spending since 1973. The bill allocates $4.5 billion for school lunches, an increase of about 6 cents per child. It also takes some other crucial steps in the right direction including pushing the Department of Agriculture to establish science-based nutrition standards that are inline with the Dietary Guidelines for all Americans.

This new grant is one component of the USDA’s Know Your Farmer Know Your Food initiative launched in 2009. It's the USDA's commitment to building local food systems.

The projects are diverse but the theme is the same, serving more foods created closer to home.

Obama Foodorama reports:

Weld County School District 6 in Greeley, Colo., will expand kitchen facilities to serve local products year-round through processing and freezing techniques. Also, Des Moines Municipal Schools in New Mexico will receive grant funding to increase the types of products it buys from local vendors. Local cattle farmers already supply the school district with 100 percent locally produced beef; USDA grant funds will be used to develop relationships with local fruit and vegetable producers to serve a full meal using locally sourced products.

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Agriculture and Healthcare Come Together to Fight HIV/AIDS

An international company that processes agricultural products and food ingredients, and who also has a presence in Africa, teamed up with NGO partners in a drive connected to World HIV/AIDS Day, which occurs every year on December first. The drive—in line with the World Aids Day strategy of getting to zero in terms of new infections, deaths from HIV/AIDS, and discrimination—was met with widespread participation.

This year, the London based global agri-business company, Olam International, mobilized its supply chain network to get vital education and healthcare support out to people across rural Africa in a unique fashion, by combining agriculture with healthcare. 

Chris Brett is the senior vice-president of Olam International. He said that while the company is heading into its fifth year of addressing the AIDS epidemic as a global issue, this year the company reached a record 234,000 people in Africa who were able to benefit from the campaign.

“Olam has an outreach of 28 countries in Africa, and we work as you say with small-scale farmer supply chains. But importantly as well, with our own processing units which are based in the rural areas,” explained Brett, who said his company has that connection with local communities for food processing. Then, on a second level, there is the interest in reaching these communities regarding HIV/AIDs awareness.

“HIV/AIDS is very important at the level of our employees, and then of course at the levels of the communities, and the farmers we work [with] and support. Over the last few years, we have been developing programs which started off as basic awareness, and have been evolving from there,” stated Brett.

Because Olam is based in communities, it gives local NGO’s the opportunity to link into the Olam systems, where they can reach farmers and employees. 

Brett pointed out one interesting aspect of the partnering with NGO’s is that they were able to reach many women. “We have a huge number of women that work in our processing units,” said Brett. He explained that Olam, in collaboration with NGO’s such as GIZ, a German corporation unit, and USAID, was able not only to bring AIDS awareness to employees, but also to let them know, through testing, their actual HIV status.

“So we ran a theme from our second, third year of support of HIV/AIDS, to basically get people to understand their status, which was a big barrier to cross. And this was given a lot of support through the NGO’s outreach and community workers. And we gave the opportunity for people then to be tested, and obviously as the result comes out, how we go forward with that in terms of counseling, and then the supply of retro-viral drugs and so on.”

Brett said the program is not a one-day program, but rather a long term campaign that will continue with the support of the community and local NGO’s. He said it is important for people to understand the link between agriculture and healthcare in preventing and living with HIV/AIDS.

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Climate insurance only part of the risk-reduction puzzle

by Olive Thiong'o

“What is visible on the ground is that farmers are already adapted somewhat. But we need them to remain robust, even when challenges hit them,” stressed Arame Tall, researcher with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Arame was speaking at the round table session Dialogue on Scaling Up Risk Management for Food Security and Agriculture held during Agriculture, Landscapes and Livelihoods Day (ALL5).

What emerged from the discussions is that when it comes to climate risk management index-based insurance is no silver bullet, in spite of its popularity. But instead risk management requires a combination of approaches. Integration of risk management with social protection; setting up regional or multi-country risk pools where possible; distributing risks and rewards across the value chain; and using a participatory dialogue process to include all actors, are other plausible options to upscale risk management.

Watch a video seminar on index-based insurance in developing countries with Dr. Michael Carter.

Illustrating one method of approaching risk management, Kitt Batten, USAID Global Climate Change Coordinator, made reference to the backbone of the newly launched USAID policy on resilience: partnerships. “The policy: Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis, includes public funds, private finance and investment, and people, all working in partnership to be food secure, particularly because food security means different things to different people,” she said.

David Waskow exemplified Oxfam America’s Productive Safety Net program(PSNP) in Ethiopia, which is based on climate resilience to avoid disaster. It takes on risk insurance using the insurance-for-work approach, to ensure that farming families are not only resilient to shocks, but that they also build their livelihoods.

The panel advised that in forging a way forward that works, various players need to dissect the problem, identify the solutions and roles of each of the players in the 4P approach – public, private, people partnerships – and engage in a dialogue process that works. “It is not mission impossible,” Arame said.

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OTHER VOICES: USDA action: Probably too little, too late

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared 218 counties in 12 states as primary natural disaster areas due to damage and losses caused by drought, including western South Dakota, western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. In addition, the USDA is opening some Conservation Reserve Program acres for emergency haying and grazing for drought-stricken ranchers, including some wetlands reserve land previously off-limits for production.

We are, of course, grateful that the USDA has decided to open CRP acres to haying and grazing because of the drought. The USDA appears, however, to have merely complied with the rules of the program that allows it to open CRP acres for emergency haying and grazing after Aug. 1 if land is classified as "abnormally dry" under the U.S. Drought Monitor on July 19.

Most of the United States, including South Dakota and nearby states, has been abnormally dry, if not abnormally hot, dry and dusty, long before July 19.

Ranchers and state officials have been seeking permission from the USDA for haying and grazing on CRP land for many weeks without result.

This week's release of CRP acres for emergency use is probably too little, too late for many West River ranchers.

Don't misunderstand our criticism; we support the CRP program. Landowners get payments from the government to take land out of production to guard against erosion and create wildlife habitat. It helps farmers and ranchers, and it's good for the environment.

We question if the USDA followed the CRP program rules to the letter for environmental reasons despite the well-publicized drought conditions in the Dakotas and elsewhere. Many ranchers who could have used the CRP land have had to sell livestock early because of a lack of feed caused by the drought.

Much to their credit, sportsmen's groups have supported an early release of CRP land, including wetlands areas.

The USDA's drought disaster declarations and release of CRP program land for emergency haying and grazing is a welcome decision. But the department could have acted earlier when evidence of widespread drought was obvious to all, and what it has announced represents the bare minimum of what should be done for drought-stricken ranchers.

Rapid City (S.D.) Journal

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USAID assisted 17 mango farms to attain GlobalGap certification

The US Agency for International Development's (USAID) farms project has successfully assisted 17 mango farms from Punjab and Sindh and attain the renowned Global Good Agriculture Practices (GlobalGap) certification, with a target to complete assistance to a total of 29 farms by the end of the year.

GlobalGap is a set of international standards for the certification of agricultural production processes, primarily designed to reassure consumers in the world market about the production of food on the farm with minimised detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, reduced usage of chemical inputs, and a responsible approach to worker health and safety. Lack of awareness about GlobalGap and non-compliance with its standards is considered one of the major impediments resulting in low mango exports from Pakistan the fifth largest producer of mangoes in the world.

As part of a larger mango program that included extensive farmer trainings, mango pack house facilities at partner farms, and development of international market linkages, USAID has helped 17 mango farms from Punjab and Sindh to get GlobalGap certified.

This is a notable achievement given that only 22 mango farms in the country are currently GlobalGap certified. With USAID's assistance, 12 more small to medium sized mango farms across Pakistan are currently undergoing internal audits to acquire the certification by the end of mango crop season 2012 and a total of 29 mango farms will be GlobalGap certified soon with the USAID Firms project's technical assistance on a cost sharing mechanism.

GlobalGap has served as a passport for Pakistani farmers for entering into high-end fruit and vegetable markets in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. "We are now better aware of how to improve and standardise the environment in which we process mangoes, increasing buyer confidence in our product," said Muzaffar Hayat Khakwani, owner of Muzaffarnagar farms.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012

Southern Punjab, Sindh: mango season bound to help boost economies

IQBAL MIRZA

Although the prospects for Pakistani mangoes selling in world market appear good, chances of mango exports to United States continue to remain dim as a result of strict phyto-sanitary conditions imposed by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), according to stakeholders here.

Notwithstanding this situation, the ongoing United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programme to help strengthen Pakistan's mango sector, the 2012 mango season is bound to give a greater boost to the economies of southern Punjab and Sindh.

Whether it is the succulent Sindhri or the delectable Chaunsa, Pakistan's mangoes are favoured across the globe for their superior taste and unique aroma. Regrettably, however, though being one of the leading producers of mangoes in the world, the country is able to export less than five percent of its produce.

This is mainly because of market inefficiencies and lack of farmer knowledge about quality and hygiene standards, which need to be addressed to enable the product, become internationally competitive. The sector contributes approximately USD 150 million per year to Pakistan's GDP, while the estimated cumulative opportunity cost of market inefficiency for mango exports for 2006-2015 is USD 674 million. This opportunity cost offers immense potential that could be converted into realisable gains for the country's economy.

It was against this backdrop that the United States Agency for International Development launched its programme to help strengthen Pakistan's mango sector in 2009. Many progressive farmers from the country's mango growing belt in southern Punjab and Sindh have benefited from the programme and have achieved higher crop yields, improved fruit quality, and adopted better handling and packaging techniques that have enabled them to successfully market their product to international buyers and retailers.

Through cost share agreements with farmers, USAID has helped set-up 14 on-farm mango pack house facilities, which also include processing lines, with another one to become functional by the 2012 mango season. These processing lines are the first of their kind in the country, and have been a vital factor in boosting mango quality and enhancing shelf life. USAID has also aided farmers in installing blast chillers and cold storage equipment, de-sapping equipment, water filtration plants, ethylene generators, stand-by diesel generators, and provided plastic harvest crates.

With increased consumer consciousness about food safety, compliance to GlobalG.A.P standards is critical to reassure consumers in the world market about how food is produced on the farm by minimising the environmental impact of farming and maintaining health and hygiene codes. A total of 20 mango farms in Pakistan are currently GlobalG.A.P certified, of which 15 have achieved the certification as a result of USAID's programme. An additional 14 mango farms from across the country are set to acquire the certification by July 2012 through USAID's assistance.

In addition to these two components that mostly target larger farms capable of producing high volumes, the project's training programme is designed to reach exporters, agriculture extension workers and a greater mass of small farmers in rural Punjab and Sindh to improve orchard care and harvesting techniques, and over 2500 beneficiaries from over 1,000 firms have been trained so far. The programme has also assisted farmer participation in international fruit exhibitions and conducted buyer-seller meetings as part of its efforts to improve mango sales and create opportunities for employment. Market and feasibility studies for dried mango, part of the value addition activities, have been completed and four pilot dried mango facilities are expected to be completed by September 2012.

As a result of the programme, 575 new full time jobs have been created so far with another 580 expected by the end of the 2012 mango season. Partner farms have been able to reduce post-harvest losses by 10 percent, and increase yields by 15 percent. They also registered an increase in sales of USD 4.35 million in 2011 (including 4,000 plus tons of exports to the Gulf, US and EU), demonstrating a growth of 63 per cent from the previous year. USD 19.7 million in additional revenues is expected for partner mango farmers by end of the 2013 mango season.

The project has also successfully completed six trial sea shipments (three each in 2010 and 2011), achieving a success rate of over 90 per cent for Sindhri variety and over 70 per cent for Chaunsa. These trial shipments have generated enormous interest among some of the leading international buyers, with potential orders of up to 800 tons of mangoes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012

USAID Agribusiness Project to boost agri sector

Regional Programme Manager of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Nazir Ahmed Essani, said that the USAID under the new Agribusiness Project wants to assist Pakistan in livestock and horticulture value chains to boost agriculture trade and create 13 million jobs, which will help in poverty alleviation.

Addressing at a seminar held at the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI), Nazir Ahmed Essani, said that agriculture contributes 23 percent to GDP and there are immense opportunities for the development of agriculture and fisheries sectors in Pakistan.

Essani further said that the Agribusiness Project aims to strengthen processing, marketing and product diversification and value addition activities of the sector. Moreover, one of the key components of the project is cost sharing grants.

Also present at the seminar were HCCI Vice President Abdul Saleem Arain, former President Yousuf Suleman and Senior Vice President Turab Ali Khoja.

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West African Animal Health Specialists Deepen Skills in First Joint USDA-USAID-Africom Workshop

Banjul — In the first such workshop hosted jointly by U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), lab technicians and epidemiologists from five West African nations gathered June 4-8, 2012, in Banjul ,The Gambia, to learn techniques and share insights around combating transboundary animal diseases.

Transboundary animal diseases cross borders and hinder the production of livestock, which is a critical component of African nations' economies and food supplies. Some animal diseases also pose a serious health risk to humans.

More than 20 participants from Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia focused on six diseases: peste des petite ruminants, African swine fever, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, Newcastle disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza This was not a week of lectures; instructors from Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa led practical teachings on the surveillance, diagnosis, prevention and control of each of the six diseases. The workshop was designed to help build capacity in partner African nations to control and prevent these devastating diseases.

Workshop topics ranged from methods of physically examining live animals to performing necropsies on poultry, goats, and a pig to collecting the correct tissue samples for later testing. For many participants, it was the first time they received professional instruction in such techniques as drawing blood or performing a necropsy on a pig.

Representatives from each country also took turns presenting their current issues and methods for data collection and information sharing.

"The countries are very willing to help each other," explained Dr. Connie Bacon, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) advisor with USAID/USDA for West Africa and the principal organizer of the event. "They realize that not one country will solve an animal disease. It really needs to be a regional and subregional effort."

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), transboundary animal diseases account for 20 percent productivity loss in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of these diseases further weaken already vulnerable areas and can undermine the stability of a fragile region.

For example, according to the UN Refugee Agency, the turmoil in northern Mali recently has led to the displacement of more than 300,000 people -- and their livestock.

Those livestock now risk being exposed to different diseases in a new area as well as transmitting any diseases they might be carrying. "It's a perfect environment for transboundary animal diseases to take hold," said Bacon, pointing out, "Really, the situation in Mali has changed the whole livestock profile of the region."

Three representatives from U.S. Africa Command attended the workshop: Dr. (Lieutenant Colonel) Clayton Chilcoat, the command veterinarian; Bruce Zanin, USDA/FAS agriculture and food security advisor; and Daniel Kasmierski, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) science and technology advisor.

"It was a really tremendous effort," said Zanin. He attended all the session and, along with the other AFRICOM attendees, provided additional insight.

As well as learning useful techniques, the participants also gained valuable connections to each other, Zanin said. "Their problems are shared problems," he said. "They have to work with their governments and their bureaucracies" to articulate their needs and the importance of tackling these diseases.

The workshop was organized by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Office for West and Central Africa, in collaboration with USAID and the Ministry of Agriculture of The Gambia. It was supported by U.S. Africa Command as part of a broader infectious disease-focused initiative.

"I think it was a learning experience for everyone," said Bacon.

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USAID Poultry Initiative to Generate N58 Billion

NIGERIA - The Poultry Association of Nigeria has said the unrestricted trans-border trade among poultry farmers in West Africa will bring N58bn to Nigeria.

According to Punch, PAN Secretary, John Olateru, said the initiative, which was facilitated by the United State Agency for International Development, would also help poultry farmers in the sub-region to attract foreign investments.

Mr Olateru spoke in Lagos at a regional workshop on Hatchery Certification Standards for West Africa.

He said, “Many international poultry farmers had indicated interest to invest in the industry to complement the existing investments.

“We will take advantage of the opportunity of this initiative to create new markets and increase our productivity.”

He added that Nigeria with over 160 million people would soon boost its human capital development indices with the full implementation of the initiative.

He said the decision of USAID’s to bring farmers together would galvanise the industry.

USAID representative, Suzanne Ngo-Eyok, said the agency had been working to develop hatcheries, laboratories and veterinary services in eight west African countries to boost regional poultry trade and check bird flu.

The countries are Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.

She said, “Since the Avian Influenza outbreak in 2007, three countries have put in measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Now that Avian Influenza has disappeared in so many countries, those restrictions are still in place.”

She said USAID was looking at laboratory and veterinary services and urged operators to ensure that international sanitary code of conduct for hatchery were strictly adhered to.

Ms Ngo-Eyok said, “At the moment, Nigeria is at an advantage because poultry supply in other countries of the region is low. In Benin, they have their day old chick coming from Belgium, even eggs to hatch their hatcheries come from Belgium Netherlands and Brazil, when they could come and get them from Nigeria.

“That is why USAID has decided to support this initiative to bring all the regional stakeholders together and reintroduce trust to find a solution and a way to open up trade in West Africa.”

ThePoultrySite News Desk

Haiti - Agriculture : 22 million to support agriculture policy reform in Haiti

A $15 million grant from the Inter-American Development Bank will assist Haiti in its efforts to modernize its agricultural policies and institutions to increase farm productivity and competitiveness. The IDB resources will be complemented with a $7 million grant from the Haiti Reconstruction Fund.

The program, the first of a series of three policy-based grants, will provide budget support as the Haitian government carries out reforms to address several of the major constraints hampering agriculture. The program was designed in coordination with other donors supporting Haiti’s efforts to improve agriculture, including the World Bank, IFAD, IICA, USAID, USDA, the European Union, France, Canada and Brazil.

Farming provides the principal means of subsistence for over 1 million Haitian families and generates about half of the country’s jobs. Agricultural productivity, which is lower than in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, has declined over the past two decades, with significant output drops in key crops such as bananas, coffee and rice.

Among the reforms Haiti will undertake is strengthening the Ministry of Agriculture (MARNDR) to carry out its planning, programming and budgeting functions, improve its capacity to manage, monitor and evaluate programs and increase the effectiveness of its services. Under this program the ministry will create a team of public procurement specialists to boost its capacity to absorb and administer financial resources provided by the government’s treasury and donors.

This reform will enable the MARNDR to better execute programs under its management. At present, IDB grants are financing agriculture projects totaling more than $200 million in Haiti, including crop intensification, irrigation, rural value chains, farming technology transfers, land tenure clarification and watershed management.

Another reform involves updating land administration policies and legal and institutional frameworks. About 60 percent of privately owned parcels lack property titles, a situation that limits long-term rural investment and farmers’ access to credit. Land titling in Haiti is costly and cumbersome and governed by antiquated laws and procedures. Under this program the government will promote legislation to enable surveyors and notaries to use modern technologies that could increase the efficiency of their services.

Haiti will also promote new legislation to assign legal status to water user associations, enabling farmers to manage and maintain irrigation systems. Policies will be updated to ensure coordination between irrigation and watershed management. An inter-agency commission will monitor the management of the Péligre dam, seeking to balance the demands of hydro power generation with the need to provide water to irrigate the Artibonite valley, the country’s principal rice-growing region. To expand access to improved farming technologies the reforms will promote the creation of a renewed agricultural research system capable of providing guidance to local rural producers.

In addition, Haiti needs to build up its agricultural health system to international standards in order to protect crops and livestock from domestic and exotic pests and diseases. The reforms will start by establishing an operational plan with specific targets and rationalizing the use of financial resources for such services.

HL/ HaitiLibre 

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